Cyber Warfare and its implications on the United States
Cyber warfare is the attack of a nation through technological use. This is through a nation
attacking a rival nation's information. (Liff, A. P. 2012). It can be practiced by hacking or attack
through computer viruses. Cyber warfare is basically a war between states or nations where
computers are attacked and not individuals. Although it's not a physical war, cyber warfare
significantly causes the same harm as a real war. Cyber warfare has had great implications in the
United States; it has brought a loss of trust with customers, relationship damages and tight media
investigations. Other than computers cyber warfare can also target infrastructure like airports or
power stations, financial institutions like banks. They are targeted due to the role they play in
running the United States' economy. The effect varies on the attack's seriousness or severity.
Cyberwarfare is readily available in comparison to physical attacks.
The relevance of cyber warfare to the United States
It is important for the United States to understand cyber warfare due to its technological
environment which relies on information and Infrastructure. For example, energy supply, traffic
control, network systems, communication system, banks and government operations depend on
cyber systems. The United States needs to control cyber warfare due to maintaining business
operations and manage risks likely to occur in cyber warfare. Cyber warfare monitoring helps in
identifying the method and tactics used in that attack for future reference in case a similar attack
occurs the state is able to handle and control the attack. The organizational defense is
implemented during the attack. The states apply relevant defense strategies to the threat or attack.
However, attacks have changed and so has the defense method. The state has already embraced
the new domain of responding to an attack. Therefore it is important to amend and adopt the up-
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to-date organizational defense structures relevant to the current cyber threat. Having
apprehended all that, the United States remains to have the best national security policies. Digital
infrastructure and telecommunication are the most essential services that reduce human error but,
these two also can cause a threat to computers through hacking.
The United States considers the internet and computer use in carrying out cyber warfare as a
threat to national security but also terms it as an attack method. The United States orders
cyberspace operations by defending United States military networks. How the United States
responds to cyber warfare implies whether they will defeat the attack or not hence will determine
the level of damage to the targeted areas. The United States is being guided by several policies
from succeeding hence becoming a global information war.
Cyberwarfare is important because it protects important information systems like government
and business information which is at risk to hackers, fraudsters, and rivals from damage and
theft. The United State should have in mind that cyber warfare can emerge from any level of the
organization hence the need to educate employees on methods that can be used in resolving a
cyber warfare attack. US government is bringing more attention to cyber insecurity by increasing
the damage of data violation by ensuring all organizations communicate when data is violated,
assign an officer for data protection and put private measures for data.
Examples of cyber warfare scenarios
The following are some of the examples of cyber warfare attacks and some lessons that can be
learned from them: A 15years old Canadian namely Mafia boy released an attack on high-profile
websites which included, Amazon, CNN, and Yahoo. This attack resulted in a 1.2 billion dollars
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damage bill. Being a minor, Mafia boy was sentenced to eight months in open custody having his
online movement limited and monitored. The second example is Robert Tappan Morris who
created a worm in 1988. The worm was transmitted through the internet where it started by
infecting 6000 equivalent computers. Morris claimed the virus was not intended to harm
computers but rather to determine the greatness of the cyberspace. This virus attack resulted in
10-100 million dollars of damage. This calamity, therefore, termed as a distributed denial-of-
service type of attack. Our third example is the China Google hit by Cyber Attack which
occurred in the year 2009. Google's Chinese headquarters discovered a cybersecurity hit that
displayed intentional punned worms on the Chinese government. The breach gave hackers access
to corporate servers and crucial information and property was stolen. The hacker's primary goal
was to access Chinese Gmail accounts of human activists. When more investigations were done,
the company found large numbers of email accounts that belonged to the US, China, and Europe
which had been accessed without permission. The Chinese government was, therefore, darted for
failing to observe human rights in China for quite a number of years. In 2006, Google accessed
the Chinese market and complied with China's internet regime. The attack re-evaluated China's
business strategy.(Liff, A. P. 2012) There was also the Melissa virus which gives us our fourth
example. This virus cost damage to 80million dollars. The Mellissa virus was created by David
Smith which infected Microsoft word documents which spread as an attachment through email.
David Smith said he did not intentionally create the virus but this did not give him a guarantee of
not getting arrested. He was arrested and imprisoned for twenty months. But in the same year
1999, the anti-virus sales went successful.(Bibighaus, D. L. 2015). There are the hacker targets
Scientology which occurred in 2008. Hackers along with teenagers darted a DDoS attack which
damaged a Scientology website of the church. This group is anonymously against religion. D
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mitiy Guzner who was 19years old was convicted for DDoS attack and sentenced to two years
probation and was ordered to pay the church of Scientology a sum amount of 37,500 dollars.
Lastly, we have the Solar Sunrise example occurring in 1998. A systematic cyber attack was
lanced in the US which took control of over 500 private and government computer systems.
These efforts originated from Iraq. The hackers exploited computers running on the Sun Solaris
Operating Systems terming the attack as 'Solar Sunrise'. A number of defense divisions were
assembled by the US government which included the FBI and the Defense Information System
Agency to investigate the matter. Surprisingly there were no Iraq operatives involved in the
hacking. The hacking resulted from three California teenagers. These revealed how an effort
coordinated would affect a whole IT infrastructure.( Bachmann, S. D. 2012).
Emerging technology used by the US to prevent cyber attacks
The United States has raised awareness of cyber warfare. A survey has been conducted on
methods to prevent cyber warfare which however comes with a cost. Research has shown that
cybercrimes are growing as rapidly as technological innovations. (Jang-Jaccard, J., & Nepal, S.
2014). The technologies that are capable of causing cyber threats can also be used to reduce
cyber attacks. There are some methods used to prevent a cyber attack: Building up a Blockchain;
this is the technology that ensures the validity of digital currencies like bitcoin. Blockchain
accounts encrypt every online data in a program. When blockchain is created it can never be
changed. Advanced communication; the faster you intervene on a cyber attack the sooner you
reduce the attack this can be practiced through the effective transmission of information to
everyone on your line of network. The US has been taking advantage of the forms of
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communication technology like emails, social media, text messages and phone calls to minimize
cyber threats. The US also chooses a Cyber Attack Notification. IT departments use an on-solve
cloud-based communication to send an automatic alert to employees and contact the right IT
experts to fix the problem before it can cause any damages. (Collins, S., & McCombie, S. 2012).
The use of Biometric Authentication makes it easier by looking at bio-data features of the user
making the use of passwords that might be hacked unnecessary. Data violation has become rife
and costly. Luckily, technology has made it easier to reduce risks and prevent cyber attacks, and
so has the US considered adopting these technologies as a method to reduce cost in cyber attack
prevention.
Conclusion
Following the US/ IRAN incidence, the US, therefore, sees the importance of effectively
handling cybercrime in an essential manner. This can be through preparations on cybersecurity
systems which will protect data and information in an organization. Cybercrime is rapidly
increasing because criminals are targeting stealing information that is exposed to the identity
cloud services, which aims at destroying data in an organization or in government institutions.
Making it harder to detect a threat by changing the target and the method used to attack. Bearing
the factors used to supply the internet, cybercrime increases day in day out. In this era, we no
longer protect data using antivirus and mere firewalls.
This is due to the high level of cybercrime increase. Government institutions and organizations
need to train their employees on cybersecurity skills. Organizations need to invest in tools that
detect cyber threats and apply protective measures. Cybersecurity can reduce violation of
information; helps gain customer, vendor and investors' trust, and will also protect your
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information from exposure against fraudsters. The use of technology in cybersecurity makes it
easier and cost-effective. Hence organizations should invest more in methods of protecting the
organization's data and information.
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Reference
Collins, S., & McCombie, S. (2012). Stuxnet: the emergence of a new cyber weapon and its
implications. Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, 7(1), 80-91
Liff, A. P. (2012). Cyberwar: a new ‘absolute weapon’? The proliferation of cyberwarfare
capabilities and interstate war. Journal of Strategic Studies, 35(3), 401-428
Jang-Jaccard, Julian, and Surya Nepal. "A survey of emerging threats in cybersecurity." Journal
of Computer and System Sciences 80, no. 5 (2014): 973-993.
Liff, A. P. (2012). Cyberwar: a new ‘absolute weapon’? The proliferation of cyberwarfare
capabilities and interstate war. Journal of Strategic Studies, 35(3), 401-428.
Lawson, S. (2011). Beyond cyber-doom: Cyberattack Scenarios and the Evidence of
History. Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Bachmann, S. D. (2012). Hybrid threats, cyber warfare and NATO’s comprehensive approach
for countering 21st century threats–mapping the new frontier of global risk and security
management. Amicus Curiae, 88.
Bibighaus, D. L. (2015). How power-laws re-write the rules of cyber warfare. Journal of
Strategic Security, 8(4), 39-52.
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